Fault line cakes are a huge trend in cake decorating, so why not try your hand! Create the perfect Easter showstopper with a fault line design. It may seem hard to achieve at first, but the process is super easy once you are in the know how!
To learn how to make a fault line cake, follow our step-by-step guide. The best thing about these cakes is that the base steps are always the same, so once you know the basics, your options for decoration are endless.
select your items and add them to your basket below.
2 PME Round Cake Pan 7 x 4 Inches
1 PME Round Cake Pan 6 x 3 Inches
1 Wooden Spoon 20cm 4 Pack
1 Wham Mixing Bowl 4 Litres
1 PME Plain Edge Side Scraper
3 Silver 10 Inch Round Cake Drum
1 PME Extra Tall Side Scraper
1 Wilton Straight Spatula 11 Inches
1 Cake Star Curved Leaf Plunger Cutters 3 Pack
1 Renshaw Ready To Roll Orange Icing 250g
1 Renshaw Ready To Roll Jet Black Icing 250g
1 Renshaw Grass Green Flower and Modelling Paste 250 g
1 Renshaw Rose Pink Flower and Modelling Paste 250 g
1 Renshaw White Flower and Modelling Paste 250g
1 Rainbow Dust Metallic Dark Gold Food Paint 25ml
1 Bakewell Non-Stick Baking Paper
1 Modelling Tools 8 Pack
1 Squires Kitchen Edible Glue 25g
1 Nielsen Massey Pure Orange Extract
You will also need:
Cocktail Sticks
Chocolate cake ingredients:
16oz caster sugar
160z margarine or soft butter
8 medium eggs
11oz self-raising flour
5oz cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
Grated zest of 3 oranges – and juice of ½
8x chocolate cookies (Oreos)
Chocolate ganache ingredients:
600ml double cream
600g dark chocolate
1tsp orange extract if wished
Baking the Cake
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 170°C fan. You will need 2x 7” round cake tins and 1x 6” round cake tin. Line the base of the tins with circles of baking paper and line the sides with strips of baking paper.
You can omit the oranges and use vanilla extract to flavour and 2 tbsp milk instead of juice.
Step 2
Beat together the sugar and margarine/butter with the orange zest until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between before adding the next. Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix until just incorporated and no flour is visible. Add the juice from ½ orange and mix well.
Step 3
Divide the mixture equally between the 3 tins. You are aiming for the 6” cake to rise a little higher than the other two cakes so the level of batter in this tin should be higher.
Step 4
Bake the cakes for approximately 45-55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with no uncooked mixture on it.
Step 5
Turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack and leave until cold.
Chocolate Ganache
Break the chocolate up into a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a pan until it just starts to come up to the boil. Pour it over the chocolate and leave it to sit for a couple of minutes.
You can speed up this process by putting the ganache into the fridge and stirring it every 10 minutes.
Use a spatula to stir the cream and chocolate together until combined into a smooth, glossy ganache. Add the orange extract (if using). Leave it to cool and thicken up – the ganache needs to be the consistency of soft, spreadable butter
Decorating the Cake
Level the 3 sponge cakes by cutting off any domed tops. Stick one of the 7” cakes to a 10” cake board with a blob of the ganache – this will be the base cake. Cover the sponge with ganache and smooth the top and sides with a scraper – use a cake turntable to help with this. Chill the cake in the fridge.
Put the other 7” and 6” cakes on boards, but don’t stick them down as they will need to be removed from their boards. Cover them both with ganache and smooth in the same way.
If at any point your ganache has set too much to spread it, you can microwave it in 5 second increments until it has softened enough to use again.
Chill all the cakes in the fridge for 30-60 minutes until the ganache has hardened before moving onto the next step.
Put a thin layer of ganache on the top of the base cake and sit the 6” cake on top, making sure it is central. Put a thin layer of ganache on top of the 6” cake and invert the final 7” cake on top so that the base of the 7” cake is now on top. Cover the exposed cake top with ganache and smooth with the scraper. Put the assembled cake back into the fridge to set for another 30 minutes.
Make one extra whole carrot for your bunny to hold later!
Use the orange icing to make some carrots – you will need approximately 12 – 16. Slice each carrot in half lengthways and trim them to fit into the fault line gap of your cake. Use the veiner tool to score ridges into the carrots to give them a realistic look.
Step 6
Stick the carrots in place around the middle of the cake – use a little ganache to stick if needed.
Step 7
Put a thick layer of ganache on the top and bottom cakes, slightly overlapping the carrots. Make the edges of the fault line rough and uneven. Scrape the sides of the cake smooth with the tall scraper and chill once more.
Step 8
To make the carrot tops roll out green modelling paste 2mm thick. Use the leaf plunger cutters to cut out 1 small and 2 large leaves. Pinch the small leaf at the base to curl it inwards and wrap a large leaf around it, sticking it with a little water. Wrap the third leaf around in the same manner.
Step 9
Insert the end of a wooden cocktail stick that has been dipped in edible glue into the base of the leaves. Repeat another 12 – 16 times. Dry the leaves upright – you can stand them up using pegs.
You can texture the icing to make it more grass-like by using a few cocktail sticks or dried spaghetti held together with an elastic band.
Step 10
Roll out a strip of green icing that is long enough to wrap around the cake to cover the cake board. Secure it in place with water and trim the edges
Step 11
Make a cute bunny to sit atop your cake using pale grey modelling paste (I used white with a little black icing kneaded in). Start with a cone shape for the body and a large round head. Give your bunny a white tummy and snout. Roll 4 small cones for the arms and legs and use the veiner tool to add in fingers and toes.
Step 12
Use a tiny ball tool to add eye sockets and fill with tiny black balls of icing for the eyes. Add eyebrows and a pink nose. Attach the arms and legs with water or edible glue.
you can make the bunny and leaves a couple of days ahead.
Step 13
Insert a wooden cocktail stick covered with edible glue into the top of the body so that 1” protrudes from the top of the body. Stick the head onto the stick. Make 2 long ears and insert half a cocktail stick into the base of each ear. Insert these into the top of the head. Leave your bunny to dry and harden
Step 14
To finish your cake, cover the top of the cake with a thin layer of melted ganache and crushed chocolate cookie crumbs and add more crumbs around the base of the cake. Insert the leaves (with the sticks) into the top of the cake in a ring around the edge and sit your bunny in the middle. Give your bunny a carrot to hold, complete with leafy top.
Step 15
You can further enhance the fault line by painting the edges with gold edible paint.